For whatever reason, Apple’s AirPower charging mat has become the white whale of the tech world; a seemingly innocuous gadget that has inspired a thousand think pieces and, if the enthusiasm is to be believed, something many people would literally charter a ship and race around the ocean to get a glimpse of. You might’ve thought you heard the last of it after it was canceled. But you were wrong....
Founded in January 2018, the Italian startup currently serves 80 countries through its network of more than 35,000 professional photographers across the globe. “We want to rewrite the future of commercial photography,” Federico Mattia Dolci, BOOM CEO and founder told TNW. The three co-founders, Federico Mattia Dolci, Giacomo Grattirola, and Jacopo Benedetti — an engineer, an economist, and a philosopher, respectively — started BOOM to meet their own needs as freelance photographers who aspired to work for household brands but had no access to a tech-enabled, digitized platform....
The US Department of Justice (DoJ), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the California attorney general’s office have said that Daimler used “defeat device software” to get around emissions testing and provide more favorable scores than was realistic, CBS News reports. Mercedes-Benz reportedly sold over 250,00 cars and vans between 2009 and 2016 that used the nefarious devices and didn’t meet state or federal emissions standards. [Read: Are EVs too expensive?...
The scorching surface of Mercury, where temperatures can reach 400 degrees Celsius (750 Fahrenheit), may seem to be the last place astronomers might find ice. However, this enormous heat could play a significant role in the formation of ice on Mercury, a new study reveals. Many astronomers believe that most of the water on the Mercury was likely delivered to the surface of that diminutive world by asteroids. Within the polar craters of Mercury, ice could stay frozen in eternal darkness....
Spokesperson Steffen Seibert agreed with Twitter’s decision to flag Trump’s tweets, as social network operators have to prevent their platforms from being “poisoned by hatred, by lies and by incitement to violence.” But he argued that banning Trump’s account was a step too far: Merkel joins a growing list of prominent European politicians who’ve criticized Twitter’s permaban of Trump’s personal account “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” following the deadly riots at the US Capitol building....
It’s a two-door, two-seater sports car with an eye-catching, futuristic design that I’d say is a bit haunting. Maybe it’s just me, but its grille reminds me of Venom’s smile – yes, Spiderman’s villain. Credit: MG - Edited It’s expected range of 800km and speed of 100kph in less than three seconds aren’t the only striking features of this EV. In fact, MG hopes to develop it with capital raised through a crowdfunding program....
Today, we search for signs of any ancient life that may have once graced the surface of the Red Planet. The Perseverance rover set down on the surface of the Red Planet on February 18, in search of Martian water and signs of ancient life. Life utilizes the resources it has available, and such ancient life on Mars would have had vast storehouses of mineral-rich rock to use both as both a home as well as a source of nutrition....
Of course, Mitsubishi isn’t the first to try to emulate daylight with what is essentially a big LED screen, but there are a few things that set this particular approach apart. While most LED solutions just spread light in all directions, sunlight is more directional. To emulate this effect, Mitsubishi’s ‘Misola’ panels use a recessed frame that only has three sides lit at any moment, creating a sharp shadow that makes it seem the light source is far away (like, you know, the sun)....
Let’s take a look. Damage from cryptocurrency-related crimes in South Korea over the last two years is estimated to be $2.3 billion (2.7 trillion Won), according to government data, The Korea Herald reports. In an interview with CNBC, eBay’s CEO, Devin Wening, said that the company is involved in the Libra Association because “crypto and blockchain have great promise… [Libra] is promising and it’s worth a try… and could do immense good....
The VPN service, currently in beta, is part of a pilot experiment to test-drive new, privacy-centric products from the Firefox maker. It will be available as a separate browser add-on. “The Firefox Private Network is an extension which provides a secure, encrypted path to the web to protect your connection and your personal information anywhere and everywhere you use your Firefox browser,” Mozilla said. The VPN currently works only on desktops, but is expected to be available on mobile platforms as well once it exits beta....
We’re back again to talk about what is obviously all our favorite topic: buying shit. Mmm, even just writing that feels fantastic. So, this is the 14th edition of Plugged In, meaning I’m beginning to see some trends played out across the newsletters. And, if there’s one topic that has united them all, it’s the simple and joy of being obsessed with things. And, this week, I have a new obsession to share with the class: cassettes....
Now it seems the company is considering tightening the reins a little. As first reported by The Streamable, some Netflix users began to see a prompt basically telling them to get their own accounts. “If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching,” reads the message. It then asks users to either sign up for a trial, or verify their identity with an email or text....
He’s here to ensure we eliminate car accidents, make traffic a thing of the past, solve autism (his words, not mine), connect human brains to machines, fill the night sky with satellites so everyone can have internet access, and colonize Mars. He doesn’t exactly know how we’re going to accomplish all those things, but he has more than enough money to turn any and every single good idea he’s ever had into a functioning industry....
For many, the best solution to their COVID-related employment woes was to turn to the freelance or “gig-based” economy. This led to a huge uptick in value for companies specializing in connecting clients with freelancers, and Fiverr, an Israeli-based company, was no exception. But the tides are changing, and workers are returning to the office. This has caused a bit of cautious pessimism for the market and even Fiverr, whose stock peaked just last year, isn’t immune to the effects....
The e-commerce giant has ingratiatingly named two of the bots after Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie. Ernie, meanwhile, is a workstation system that removes totes from robotic shelves and then deliveries them to employees. The duo may one day be joined at work by another pair of robot colleagues: Scooter and Kermit, which transport carts across facilities. [Read: Why entrepreneurship in emerging markets matters] In April, Jeff Bezos revealed another system designed to improve worker safety: an algorithm that rotates staff around tasks that use different body parts....
The app — available on Android and iOS — quite simple to use: click a selfie, and select a GIF to replace the original face with your face. You can take selfies with different looks and accessories to experiment. The app uses RefaceAI — a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) — to swap out your face in a GIF. It’s developed by a company with the same name, and was previously used in a face swapping app called Reflect (once used by Elon Musk)....
Nintendo recently updated its Switch eShop policies, making a change many fans have been requesting practically since the console released: the ability to cancel pre-orders if you don’t want the game. Here’s how you can do it. Previously, whenever you paid for a game on the Switch, all sales were final. As soon as money changed hands, you couldn’t decide you didn’t want the game. Needless to say, this did not make gamers happy, as the flexibility to cancel pre-orders should you change your mind is one of the benefits of pre-ordering....
Suzuki aims for his vehicle acoustic environment to make “quiet” electric cars more audible to pedestrians, while promoting an emotive interactive driving experience. To accommodate that, the sounds change based on speed, location, time and the driver’s activities. As a matter of fact, the well-known noise of the conventional internal combustion engine is what alerts us of a passing car. And as drivers we might even admit that we feel a pang of leaving something behind when our EVs don’t roar like traditional combustion engines....
But let’s slow down before we convince ourselves that the US military just invented a range of Transformers or Decepticons, the tech is far more nuanced than it sounds. [Read: Lyft gives itself a comfortable 10-year deadline to make all its vehicles electric] Researchers with a US Army Research Laboratory and Texas A&M University have just published the results of a two-year study that explored fluid-structures, Army.Mil reports. The study enabled researchers to develop a tool which can be used to model and optimize the operational configuration and shape of unmanned vertical take off vehicles....
Responding to a tweet from security expert Jackie Singh, Twitter product lead Kayvon Beykpour revealed the company is “exploring” adding a dislike button to its platform — but it’s simply not one of its most urgent priorities. — Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) November 17, 2020 Instead, Twitter is currently concentrating its efforts on cutting the spread of inauthentic behavior, enhancing the safety of its users with better tools to curb and report harassment, and cracking down on misinformation that could have harmful effects on its users....
